The Fumbled Punch Line of a Cosmic Joke
by Sarryn-san
Summary: Sometimes, the more things change, the more they become different, and trying to go back to the way things were just disrespects everything that happened in between.


**Starscream was hardly one to believe in most 'Higher Power' beliefs… he wasn't the type to bow down to the all-knowing will of Primus, especially since most myths had Him as being pretty much comatose for the past… forever, and even if He was awake, He was probably just really, **_**really **_**huge. And he didn't really care about a really, **_**really**_** huge comatose maybe-god. But at this point, sitting in a crater, in some uninhabited, spit of a rock, broken thrusters and dented wings with that stupid, slagging, traitorous shuttle calling down to see if he was okay, or should he maybe toss down a grenade to be sure, he was pretty much certain that there had to be **_**some**_** kind of Higher Power out there, laughing.**

**He looked up, out of the crater… at the smug look on Skyfire's faceplates. **_**Ugh… the grenade would be kinder than that look.**_** He huffed and crossed his arms irritably. "Why are you still here?! Shouldn't you have flown off merrily to gloat over my fall with your stupid ground-pounding friends?"**

**Great… now he was giving him that 'half-amused, half-sympathetic' look, the one he always gave when Starscream had gone off on a tangent about… something. Anything, really. Upon reflection, Starscream realised that he had a habit of flying off in a rant over just about anything. And Skyfire would always just give him that look, as if he was saying 'aww, poor little seeker, life just isn't fair, is it?' He wasn't sure **_**how**_** the shuttle managed to practically **_**ooze**_** sarcasm without speaking, but he had it down to an art.**

"**Stop that." Starscream scowled up at him, "I **_**will**_** blast that look off your faceplate this time. Don't think I won't."**

**Skyfire's faceplate split into a grin and he hopped over the lip of the crater and slowly descended to stand by Starscream's side. "For that, you would require a charge. And perhaps some aim."**

**The smaller flyer glared, a part of him wanted to laugh, joke back, and, bask in the friendly nostalgic aura of the situation, just he and Skyfire, together. But that part of him was now so small, and had long since been smothered by all that had happened to make this event note-worthy, and so, he turned away and growled, "I have no interest in bickering with a glorified Autobot taxi. If you're going to shoot me, do it, if not, you're crowding me, get out."**

"**And here I was going to offer you a lift-"**

"**I'd rather **_**crawl**_** out!" Starscream snapped, turning back to glare at Skyfire's stupid, unfazed, easy-going faceplate.**

"_**You**_**? Crawl anywhere? I thought ground only barely earned the right to touch your pedes?" Skyfire fixed him with an amused stare, clearly unimpressed with his glaring. Though, Starscream was certain that this was only because instead of seeing him as 'Starscream; Air Commander, and Second in Command of the Decepticon Forces,' he saw him as 'Starscream; Aspiring Scientist and Student, with a tendency of panicking in exams and forgetting all the answers.'**

"**Get out of my hole." The jet's scowl deepened. **

**Skyfire snorted and shifted to cover his mouth with a hand, and give Starscream an even **_**more**_** amused look.**

**Starscream groaned and shook his head. "Stop that. You're not allowed to do that anymore. You don't get to laugh about misplaced meanings anymore, you traitor."**

"**Traitor?" Skyfire shot him a sceptical look, as if to say 'I know what you mean, but I don't agree with you.' **

**Starscream grunted irritably, and began looking around to see if he plot a route to climb out his crater, feeling far, far too boxed in at the moment. **

"**I suppose from **_**your**_** point of view, maybe. But the way I see it, **_**you're**_** the traitor."**

"**Oh? Is that so?" And, **_**why do I care again?**_

"**Mmhm. The Starscream **_**I **_**knew wouldn't have resorted to violence, Pit, most times he found a verbal way to solve things, even if that way **_**was**_** berating someone into submission. He would rather study a new culture and life form, than destroy everything they've created for his own gain, he wouldn't be a part of a murderous faction of backstabbing, pillaging, monstrous thugs. The Starscream **_**I**_** knew, would have been an Autobot."**

**Starscream snorted, and choked back a laugh, fixing Skyfire with a dark look.**

"**What happed to the Starscream I knew?" Skyfire asked softly, his previous sarcasm and amusement replaced with a sad, almost pleading look that just managed to make Starscream want to punch him.**

"**He died." Starscream answered, bluntly, and Skyfire flinched. "The Starscream **_**you**_** knew? He's dead. I just wear his plating, now." He thrust his arms out and his chest plate forward. "Long time ago now, probably a shame, he sounds like a decent mech, doesn't he? Real likable sort! Real shame that over the course of **_**nine million years**_** he happened to **_**change**_**!"**

**Skyfire flinched and looked away, "Starscream…"**

"**No! No, you don't get to **_**do **_**that!" Starscream was out of patience now, "You don't get to look at me all pathetic and sad and act like **_**I'm**_** at fault, like **_**I'm **_**terrible for having **_**changed**_**. You were gone for **_**nine million years**_**. You didn't see **_**any**_** of it! You didn't see Vos burn, or our brothers and sisters **_**die**_**! You didn't watch as those ground-pounders in the senate started kicking fliers out of office? Do you think you wouldn't've changed when they kicked **_**you**_** out of the academy?! Tossed you to the streets like a criminal because… because, nothing! Because we had wings! Because we could **_**fly**_**. We were **_**free**_**. Or did your Autobot buddies not **_**tell **_**you that part? How about when they started putting limits on the sky?! Did they tell you about the minimum height restrictions that kept you from flying too high without a permit?! And to apply for a permit you had to have a government job! And most fliers couldn't get those jobs **_**because the senate wouldn't let us! **_**They knew that uprisings were coming, and that they couldn't control us and so they tried to ground us! Did you never wonder why practically the only fliers you find in the Autobot numbers were the ones they built **_**during**_** the war, that annoying little minibot and that monstrosity of an ex-Guardian!? Because **_**we. Rose. Up.**_** The days the Autobots are fighting to return to? To bring back? That 'Golden Age'? You have no place in it. You'll be lucky if they let you continue to be their taxi, because they'll hate you."**

**Skyfire was mercifully silent as Starscream stared at him, seething. The shuttle's expression was blank, for once, and he seemed unable to form a response. He **_**didn't**_** know. He hadn't been there. He hadn't seen any of what Starscream described, he couldn't even say for certain that Starscream was telling the truth, or at least, all of it. So much of it almost seemed like conspiracy paranoia, which was hardly out of character for Starscream. Or so he assumed. In truth, he couldn't know for sure. He couldn't know because he **_**hadn't**_** been there. He hadn't seen any of it. He **_**didn't**_** know Starscream anymore…**

"**You don't believe me, do you?" Starscream pointed at him, accusing, "you think I'm just lying to you, maybe so you'll come back to the Decepticons?" He laughed now, and there was a hint of madness in it that unnerved Skyfire. "No… no, it's too late for that. You picked your side. You picked **_**wrong.**_** but you picked. So I guess you'll have to live with that. But I want you to **_**know**_**. I want you to **_**know**_** what happened to '**_**your Starscream**_**' because I am **_**so sick**_** of you asking! He's dead now. The Autobots **_**killed **_**him. And I **_**want you to live with that**_**." **

**Skyfire was driven back by the hatred in the seeker's voice and was forced to look away by the darkness in his glare. **

"**Get out." **

**Skyfire looked back to Starscream, despair filling his spark, he had so hoped, **_**so hoped **_**that he could have, somehow, won his Starscream back, found that he wasn't hidden so deep as he seemed. He had hoped that somehow he could have gained his friend back, but it seemed that was going to be impossible. It seemed that his Starscream was gone, and instead he had to watch his ghost from across the battlefield, a constant reminder of what he had once had.**

"…**I'm sorry, Starscream." He all but whispered, though he wasn't certain if he was speaking to the Decepticon standing in front of him, or the friend he was leaving behind, again. And with that he took off, to find his current allies, and try and drown his doubts in their company.**

**Starscream watched him go, watched until he was out of his, rather limited, view and then sighed and fell back to sit again, stewing in his own loss. The small part of him that still recognised Skyfire as a friend screamed in mourning, as the rest of him just felt that it was about time he let go of that hope. It should've died the instant Skyfire donned the Autobot brand, or even sooner… when he had revealed himself as being exactly the same as he had been, Starscream was a smart mech, he should've noticed that Skyfire wouldn't know. But he'd always wished during the war that he'd had Skyfire's companionship to take refuge in, always imagined what it would've been like to have the shuttle at his side, but the Skyfire he had imagined, his Skyfire, died when the real Skyfire woke up. When the real Skyfire had turned his back on him.**

_**I hope that Higher Power is still laughing, **_**he thought, spitefully, as he began he stood to begin his climb out of the crater, **_**at least, then, someone is.**_


End file.
